How much of your Apple Music subscription fees go to record labels

When Apple Music launches at the end of June you won’t have to pay a cent to listen to all the music your ears can hear for the first three months. If you want to keep using Apple Music after the three month trial period though you’ll have to fork over $10 a month, and according to a new report it’s paying out more to the record labels than Spotify.

Apple executive Robert Kondrk confirmed to Recode that Apple will pay music rights owners about 70 percent of revenue generated through Apple Music. That’s a fairly standard rate for the industry, but a leaked contract that surfaced online last week suggested Apple was only paying out 58 percent of its revenue.

According to Kondrk, who negotiated the music deals with Eddy Cue, Apple will pay music owners 71.5 percent of subscription revenue in the U.S. Apple won’t have to pay a cent to the labels for any music streamed during the free three month trial period, which was a big point of contention during the negoatians.

Outside of the U.S., the percentage will fluctuate but should average around 73 percent. The payouts are a couple percentage points higher than industry standard in part to account for the longer trial period (most service offer just a one-month trial).